Flower...Justicia carthaginensis

[adcolon]

Cambalache State Forest, Arecibo, Puerto Rico. Canon 30D, Canon 180macro/with extender and 580Xflash w/diffuser. ISO 200, f/16 @ 1/250 sec.

[Julie Kenward]

Alfredo, I have to ask...how do you get that much flash on the green part of the plant and still have the entire BG in dark? Are you post processing it that way or is that your actual result?

For my tastes, this is too dark. I either like a flower in total darkness or I like it in natural light. This feels halfway between both. I do like your composition and the detail in the flower - just not wild about the greenery and the black BG in this one.

[adcolon]

That's the Flash on TTL with a diffuser. I don't process it for a dark background. But if some spilled light shows a twig I clone it out. I could fire the flash in manual and gradually check to include all the background but usually the flowers in the forest have an extremely cluttered background and I prefer it not to show for it will certainly detract attention from the flower itself...and I don't want to harm the plant by moving it.

[Julie Kenward]

Well, that certainly makes sense. If the BG is extremely cluttered then I think you made the right choice, Alfredo.

[Anita Bower]

To my view, the dark background works fine. I like how the pink flower stands out against it. The flower is nicely positioned in the frame. The only distraction I find is the overly light green leaves to the back and left of the flower. Could they be darkened or cloned out? I'm not much for cloning things out, though.